The AMOC 80th Anniversary Festival is at Brands Hatch this weekend. Fellow GT Planet member Mook and I decided to attend today (Saturday). Mook has a very fancy new camera which takes 10 photos a second so hopefully he managed to get some good action shots. My camera is only suitable for still shots. Unfortunately I missed the Bizzarini 5300 GT, AC Cobra 289, Lola Mark 1 and Diva GT, but in this post are some of my favourite cars from the day.
Top left Aston Martin's lined up ready for the lunchtime track parade. Top right two Sunbeam Tiger 260's and a blue Alpine (the Tiger was developed by Shelby for the Rootes group and featured a Ford V8). Above mid fifties AC Aceca - the coupe version of the AC Ace (in 1962 Shelby dropped a Ford 260 V8 into an Ace and the Cobra was born).
Above right 1956 Cooper Bobtail (number 86). Above 1959 Cooper Monaco (number 16) was beautiful, fast and won the AMOC 1950's Sports Car race. In 1963 Shelby took a by then obsolete Cooper Monaco, fitted a Ford V8 and created the USRRC winning Shelby King Cobra.
Below a 20 minute handicap race was held for cars from the 1920's and 30's. Races were on the GP circuit and handicaps of up to 2 laps (5.2 miles were given). The winning car was the tiny 1935 750cc Austin Seven Ulster (number 71) which had a two lap head start over the number 16 Alta.
Number 16 supercharged Alta from 1936 was the fastest car and lapped the GP circuit in under 2 minutes. Best sounding car was the 1935 Wolseley Hornet Special top left. Number 46 1931 Invicta S Type featured 4.5 litre Meadows engine and was driven very hard (much tyre squeal). Number 40 1936 4.5 litre Lagonda. Number 14 1928 3 litre Bentley was driven faster than the 4.5 litre Bentley's in the race.
Below the AMOC Intermarque races now include an invitational class as well as the four teams (Aston, Porsche, Ferrari and Sunbeam). My favourite Invitational class cars included the white De Tomaso Pantera GT5 (below right) - I had a chat with the drivers who said they also race on the Playstation! One told me that to get Paddock Hill bend right he aims for the Marshalls post. They had to qualify the car in the wet and said it was very tricky to drive in wet conditions. Fortunately we had a dry race.
Above two stunning cars - number 98 Dan Gurney Mercury Cougar XR7 raced in Intermarque. Number 85 2 Litre Lister Bristol came second to the Cooper Monaco in the 1950's Sports Car race.
Below the beautiful and very light Lotus Elite was a fibreglass monococque car fitted with the exotic Coventry Climax 1100cc. In period the twin Weber carb version of this engine produced 80bhp as standard - a remarkable figure for 1961.
Red number 11 this very rare WSM was originally raced at Le Mans and is now a regular at AMOC events. Enjoy this short action clip of the WSM at a previous event.
Part 2 of the AMOC Festival to follow.
. Harsk managed to make a pass though and I dropped down to 5th place. From there I gained some and lost some but never really managed to close the gap. Finished 5th.
